


If You Wanna Be My Lover

by KrisseyCrystal (IceCreAMS)



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Bonding, Campfires, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, My Friends are Your Friends, ft. the Sparrowfeathers, sharing stories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:48:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26723929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IceCreAMS/pseuds/KrisseyCrystal
Summary: Alisha, Rose decides, does not have enough in the way of friends.
Relationships: Alisha Diphda/Rose
Comments: 10
Kudos: 28





	If You Wanna Be My Lover

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SilentShanin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilentShanin/gifts).



“What, you never did something like that with your friends?”

Alisha pauses mid-motion. She frowns and tilts her head to the side as she thinks, eyes lifting to the green canopy above them. With her gauntlets off and sleeves rolled up, the river water glistens down her forearms.

“I’m a princess, Rose,” she says after a moment as she scrubs her own uniform against a washboard. “I don’t easily make ‘friends.’”

Rose scoffs and mutters something under her breath as she pouts down at the water. It sounds suspiciously like, “Well. Could’ve fooled me on the ‘princess’ part.” She clears her throat. “But uh. Okay. Wow. So now I kinda feel bad for Ian and Shiller.” She shrugs and puts on a bright grin, kicking her feet up with a splash and leaning back over the giant boulder. “I mean—”

“—Rose—”

“—if that’s what you say. Anyway, we’re dating now, so that means my friends are your friends!” 

Alisha passes a glance to Rose with a pinched frown. There’s a look in Rose’s eyes, something cunning and mysterious that Alisha regretfully recognizes: the look of the trained assassin plotting a scheme. She’s not sure how and why their conversation plays into that clever look in the blue of her eyes.

“Your friends?” she repeats.

Rose nods.

Hm.

* * *

The next afternoon after another long day of travel on a detour that would “so totally be worth it, I _promise,_ Lisha,” Rose barges into what seems like a completely random and sunken set of ruins. It is, Rose assures her, not as uninhabited and desolated as she might be expecting. When she drags Alisha through the entryway behind her, shouting at the top of her lungs, “Knock, knock, knock! Anybody home? Guess who’s back!” Alisha can see why.

Alisha has met the Sparrowfeathers before. She thinks. It must have been in passing, but she’s fairly certain she has seen them. At some point.

She’s not quite certain why she feels nervous the instant they creep out of the shadows to assemble in front of her with equally as uncomfortable and apprehensive looks. The twins keep glancing at each other and shifting their weight from foot to foot. Eguille has a stern set to the turn of his mouth, arms crossed over his chest. She can’t remember the name of the last young man and guilt floods her; he looks rather friendly despite his watchful eyes.

“So, y’all know the Princess of Hyland.” Rose gestures with a wide grin to Alisha and back to the gathered Sparrowfeathers. “I’ll skip the pleasantries there. But today, you’re going to meet my girlfriend, Alisha Diphda.”

Eguille is the first to clear his throat and flick a glance from Alisha to Rose. The lack of surprise on his face must mean Rose has told them about their relationship, which is an insinuation Alisha’s not sure how to react to. Rose has probably said only good things about her, no doubt. But how much more than she deserves? 

“Okay. But what is she doing _here,_ Boss?”

“Hanging out! Eating dinner with us! Staying the night! Duh!”

By the brightness of Rose’s grin, she either has no idea that the tension has just elevated in the entry room of the ruins or she’s just deliberately ignoring it.

“Aw, c’mon, guys!” At their silence, Rose huffs and scowls. She places both of her hands on her waist. “This isn’t that big of a deal. Yeah, she’s a princess, but she’s my _partner._ I promise she ain’t gonna bite.”

“And I promise it’s not her teeth that’s the issue.”

Rose rolls her eyes at Eguille and turns to the twins. “Talfryn, _you’re_ not a coward, right? Come on and introduce yourself to my girlfriend already!”

With a small sigh, Talfryn removes himself from his sister’s side. He stops in front of Alisha and gracelessly throws out a hand; his fingers are loose but extended. “Ayn Talfryn. It’s nice to, uh, officially meet you, I guess, your highness.”

Alisha nods. Her mouth presses into a firm line as she grabs at his hand with both of hers. She shakes it and bows. “Thank you, Ayn Talfryn. I am most gratified. I will be in your care today.”

Somewhere from the Sparrowfeathers, there’s a short and surprised bark of a laugh. 

Alisha suspects it’s Talfryn’s sister judging by the way Rose snaps her head around to give her a wry, smirking look. Talfryn’s mouth quirks up at the edges; something in him loosens and finally begins to unknot itself. “Aw, gee. I didn’t realize she was like this. I dunno, Boss; she kind of seems like a lost cause.”

His sister laughs again, much closer than before. Alisha looks up in time to see her slide her elbow onto Talfryn’s shoulder, leaning lazily against his side. She gives Alisha a single wink. “Ayn Felice, your highness.” Then, turning to Rose, she adds: “Yeah, Boss. You sure this is the one you want?”

Alisha’s face floods with heat. She glances at Rose, who has her hands cupped over her stomach as she laughs to the ceiling.

 _Oh._ Alisha looks away quickly. She can feel red creep over her ears. _That…that was a jest. I see._

Eguille comes to her rescue in the form of a comparatively normal handshake and a, “You’re going to have to excuse them, your highness; they were raised in a barn,” before he introduces both himself and the other, dark-haired young man that hangs at the rear of their group. Rosh is his name. Apparently.

Alisha nods and silently vows to remember it this time.

* * *

The campfire is warm at the center of the room beyond the entrance. It has been a long time since Alisha has taken refuge in ruins like this and it makes memories swell to the surface that color the atmosphere in sepia tones, stirring nostalgia.

As cuts of hunted prickleboar are roasting over the center flame, stories begin to pass.

Talfryn’s the one to start, telling an embarrassing tale about a time Rosh accidentally seduced the wrong target for a job. Rosh is all red and grumbles about how it wasn’t his fault the descriptions were vague. He shoots back another story concerning both Talfryn and Felice that makes Rose nearly fall off the crate she’s perched on with both of her arms wrapped around her middle.

It makes Alisha smile too, especially when another tale makes Rose lean into her side as she laughs and laughs and laughs.

Anything that can make Rose laugh is desirable.

It’s not something Alisha has explicitly considered before: laughter and the sharing of it as a way to deepen your bonds with others, with friends. Duty has always honor-bound Alisha to her troops, to her advisors, to Sorey, and to everyone else. Could something really as simple as humor bind people who would otherwise be strangers?

 _I suppose this is what it means to make friends,_ she thinks and opens her mouth.

“A couple of months ago, we had a new hire at the Diphda Estate, a scullery maid. She’s supposed to handle my linens. I hadn’t told her yet that Rose is a frequent visitor of mine, so the first time Rose was there while she was on shift, well—”

All of a sudden, Rose spins to face her, very, very red. 

“They don’t need to know about that, Lisha! Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!”

Fear ices Alisha’s chest. For one moment, she fears she went too far.

Then: “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait.” Felice sticks out a hand and leans forward. The firelight makes her wide grin almost catlike; wild. “If the boss is reacting like that, that kind of sounds like a story we _definitely_ need to know about! Wouldn’t you agree, Talfryn?”

“I think you’re right, Felice.”

“No! Nope! Uh-uh!” Rose shakes her head and crosses her arms over her chest. “Lisha, don’t you dare tell ‘em.”

“Why not? What’s the harm?” Rosh mutters.

Felice leans over her brother’s shoulder and murmurs loudly over the crackling campfire, “I bet something super embarrassing happened. Like she got chased out of the manor naked or somethin’.”

“Oh no, you needn’t fret! It wasn’t so bad as all that! I distinctly remember Rose in her underwear when she ran out of the gardens,” Alisha helpfully supplies.

Rose groans and covers her face.

“Wait, you _what?!”_ Talfryn screeches. “You got chased out of the princess’s mansion in your _undies?!”_

Rosh tilts his head back and laughs for the first time Alisha has seen this evening. 

“Seriously! It was the _one time_ I got caught without my knives on me…!” Rose bemoans. 

Felice folds her hands in front of her chin like in prayer. “Now you’ve _gotta_ continue the story, your highness! Please, please, please, please!”

Alisha raises a hand in front of her mouth and permits herself the small delight of a giggle. “I’m afraid there’s not much more to it after that. The scullery maid believed Rose was an intruder; she was only doing her best to defend me. After I finally told her about the nature of our relationship, she was mortified and _entirely_ sweet about the whole thing. The next time Rose came over, she apologized to her personally.”

Rose, even with her red, red face, smiles and shakes her head. She bumps her shoulder gently, fondly, against Alisha’s. “I like her. She’s a great kid; got smart instincts. How can I blame her when she was only trying to protect the love of my life?”

Talfryn and Felice make synchronized gagging noises. Something in Eguille’s smile softens.

It’s Felice who leans forward next. “Wait, so if Rose was in her undies, does that mean you two were…?”

Silence descends around the campfire ring.

Alisha’s face reddens. She looks away. Rose grins and with a long, lazy stretch, loops her arm around Alisha’s shoulders. “Well, yeah, we were on our way to fuckin’ that night,” she crows and turns Alisha’s face to her to kiss her. When she pulls back with a dramatic _pop_ of her lips, she adds, “But it wasn’t our first time, you know.”

Felice and Talfryn whoop obnoxiously as Talfryn extends his hand to Rosh sitting on the barrel next to their crate. Rosh rolls his eyes and fishes out a few gald coins from the pouch at his waist to drop them into his palm.

Eguille groans.

“Coulda sworn the princess was more innocent than that,” Rosh grumbles.

“Innocent? Ha!” Rose crows with laughter. “By Maotelus—really, though, really, you should hear this one—there was this _one_ time when we were in Lisha’s bathtub, and—”

 _“—Rose!”_

* * *

Alisha doesn’t realize how loose her own muscles and posture have become until she and Rose stand at the mouth of the ruins the following morning. She rolls her shoulders and reminds herself of the proper conduct of a Princess of Hyland and a Commander of Soldiers and lifts her chin before bowing with her hand over her heart. 

“Thank you, everyone. I am extremely grateful for how kind and welcoming you have been in allowing me to ‘hang out’ with you all.”

Felice’s brows are pinched high on her brow. “Aw. Now it’s kind of growing on me. Do you really have to go?”

Alisha nods. “Yes. We both do if we are to return to Ladylake by tomorrow.”

“I mean, I _guess_ that makes sense _…_ ” 

Eguille pats Felice on the shoulder.

Alisha finds herself surprised. She’s not quite sure why. She’s not quite sure how to name the funny feeling buzzing at the base of her throat or even how it’s there. So she swallows and nods and before she can stop herself, salutes. “Well. Farewell, then—”

“—wait.”

Before Alisha’s arm can drop, Felice steps forward. She has a wide and warm smile on her face. “I know you have your princess and soldier salutations that you’re used to and all, but this,” she says, “this is how _we_ say ‘good-bye’—the Sparrowfeathers-way.”

With that, she wraps her arms around Alisha and squeezes her tight.

Alisha stiffens with one arm caught awkwardly above Felice’s own. “O-oh!” She blinks and then, slowly, attempts to embrace her in turn.

She does not expect Talfryn’s shadow to fall over them and to feel his two arms to wrap around them as well. Then follows Rosh and lastly Eguille. After Eguille is Rose, right at Alisha’s back, tucking her chin over the princess’s shoulder.

“See?” she whispers into Alisha’s ear and kisses her cheek. “Having friends is nice, isn’t it?”

Alisha blinks. She blinks again.

She thinks that buzzing feeling—very loud now, very much, very everywhere and filling her up until it reaches the level of her burning eyes—might finally have a name. 

**Author's Note:**

> ahhhhhh thanks for yet another Rosali request, Shanin! <3 <3 this was SO FUN to write--i'm always a sap for bonding time and anything including the Sparrowfeathers and CAMPFIRE SCENES man...put them all together and it's a recipe for a good time <3 <3 thank you SO MUCH for giving me the honor of writing this <3 <3
> 
> <3 and thanks to you, too, for reading!! <3
> 
> [tw](https://twitter.com/kissykrissey) / [tblr](https://krisseycrystal.tumblr.com/)


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